Halls of Science
by Ivan Broddy
Summary: After the war ends, Scout finds himself signing up for the Aperture Science training program. It was a reckless decision, and now Scout is paying the price. Now it's just survival until he reaches the las test, gets the cake, and goes home.


The quiet metallic hum of machinery flowed through the stagnant feeling air. It was supposed to be pumped fresh from the surface but it didn't smell that way. The air didn't taste fresh at all. There was no sense of time, only chamber after chamber of black and white. It was maddening, he could feel the adrenaline flowing through the air sending his heart beating faster. How long had it been since he'd slept? How long ago had he seen the sun? It was times like this he was filled with doubt, he'd signed on this project in a whim. The pay was better than he'd ever gotten before.

Scout sat on the black tile and leaned his head back, letting it rest gently against the smooth walls of the testing chamber. He looked around himself at the empty room. His companion cube, a button hidden by glass, high black walls, a bottomless pit.

"What are you doing? This is why you're fat you know. You're lazy"

"Shut up you old bat," Scout heaved himself to his feet, gripping his portal gun tighter in his hand. He hated her, GladOS, she was too much like the Announcer. She was always looking over his shoulder, making smart comments, smart comments and shit talk.

Scout fired a his gun at the wall, at the ceiling, then he jumped. Scout smiled as he felt an adrenaline rush. That initial rush, the moment of exhilaration as the world spun around you and your stomach fell out of your body. He was in free fall, seeing the world wiping past, feeling the rush of stagnant scented wind. It was almost like running up, he saw his booted feet and his orange jumpsuit, it was comforting, orange was like red. There wasn't enough red in the facility, only blue. The turrets eyes were red, but that didn't comfort him in the least.

Taking aim, Scout fired another portal, using the momentum to shoot him through the air onto the platform with the button. He placed a portal on the wall next to it, and carried up his companion cube. It wasn't really his cube anymore. He was a preliminary test subject so he wasn't assigned a specific cube. They all looked the same, grey on grey with a pink heart in the middle. He liked pink. It was girly, but again better than blue. He could feel the differences in the cubes he was assigned, some were heavier, some had rougher sides. His first cube had a chip in it, one of the corners was dented so the metal underneath was exposed.

Rubbing his eyes, Scout ran through the door. He yawned and tried to collect his thoughts, his brain felt muddy, the gun felt heavier than it had before. His boots carried him through the sliding door and into the elevator.

"Well done, at this rate you might almost finish before you die of old age."

"Bitch."

Scout hadn't run properly in a few years. It was his left leg, the nerves weren't functioning properly. That's what the doctors said, he couldn't run. The leg would spasm and twitch, the best he could manage was walking. Bullshit, the scout thought. If the old red medic was still around he could have fixed his leg in a second. Admittedly, Scout didn't like his birds with their beady eyes. He didn't really like the Medic, he was nice and all, but he never healed him. He got one uber and it was amazing, but it was just the once.

**It was humiliating for his leg to be busted. He hadn't even screwed up in battle. He was being an idiot and screwed himself over that way. After he'd finished his contract, Scout was five years older, Twenty seven and he thought it was time to go to the luck ladies of Boston to get himself a girl. He'd moved back to Boston and gotten a car, he had enough money to last him a lifetime. One night, he was driving home in his Cadillac with a girl of his. She was from out of town and, he'd won her over with his obvious charm and good looks. It was getting dark but he thought he would show her the city at night. As he flew through the city with the windows down, he made the mistake of turning to look at her. **

Her mouth was open in delight; the lights of the city were reflected in her eyes. Scout could only think of how his mother would love her. Was he is love? No way, that was impossible, right? Taking one hand off the wheel, Scout took one of her hands in his. That was when it happened.

Light. Scout remembered lights. The entire world felt bright. Bright lights, her yellow dress, white hot pain in his leg, yelling loud. There was shouting and horns, loud and quiet at the same time. She was screaming, high and loud, then there were sirens with more lights. He could see people standing there around the wreckage, just watching them. He'd wanted to shout, to tell them to get their asses moving! But he couldn't speak. It was too bright.

Clunk.

The elevator dropped his off at the next floor. Scout took a deep breath and set his jaw, he wasn't a pushover. God damn it was a freakin' Scout and he was gonna act like it

"It's good to see you're looking better. I was starting to worry you would give up like the coward you are. I'm glad to see that you haven't disappointed me, yet."

"Ha," Scout turned to face the camera. He swung his arms out wide and strutted towards the lens, "I love you too Darlin'!

"Well I'll be!" The Engineer whistled and looked at the test statistics on his clipboard. He stood on the platform in front of his greatest creation.

"GladOS this is great testing data, I'm plum proud of you.

"It is no problem. It's what I am designed to do."

He nodded and looked at the security cameras again. He could see the Scout, stumbling through the last chamber. He almost felt sympathy for the boy. Almost, he was just a flawed human and old grudges died hard.

Dell Conagher was the old Blu Engineer. He had recognized the scout the minute he handed in his application two years ago. Scout had completed initial training with ease, flaunting it in front of the other applicants.

He wasn't about to go pointing fingers, but Dell knew that the scout had played some force in the turrets. Dell had initially designed them fast, more that fast enough to catch a scout if he wasn't careful.

GladOS was the one who told him off after they created a veritable slaughterhouse. He'd been laughing as each test subject was successfully gunned down, but she had talked to him, rationalized why he couldn't immediately kill test subjects. It was all for science, not revenge.

It was science not revenge.

He was right to name her GladOS. She was just like his old wife Gladys, bless her soul she was kind and smart. She was a bit too smart though. She saw him smiling at the young lady across the street Irene. She knew before he even knew he was smitten.

When he'd went off to war with Blu, he wrote Gladys letters once a week, but he wrote Irene letters every day. He regretted it still, he knew it was wrong but goddamn it he couldn't help himself, he was only human.

When he got home, he saw that Irene had confronted Gladys. Irene was planning for her and Dell to move and just abandon Gladys at home. Dell knew he wouldn't, he knew he would never just get up and leave. That's why Gladys did that for him. She left to live with her parents; he heard she'd found a nice man up in Montana.

"Umm, any GladOS, I think you should increase adrenaline levels, boy's looking worn out."

"Of course Mr. Conagher. By the way, I'd like to do some new experimentation."

"Sure thing, just get one of the lab guys to write a report." Dell looked around the room and selected a man hunched over the computer.

"Hey, Doug!" Dell walked over the where the man was working.

"Y-Yes Mr. Conagher?"

"I'd like you to help GladOS with another of her little experiments. Just send me up a report later so I can run it by Mr. Johnson."

Dell smiled as the skittish man nodded. He went out to go to the lobby area, it was the nicest area to eat lunch. There was a nice stream of people and the chair were comfortable, heck. He might even get Caroline to sit with him and discuss new plans.

Scout ducked into one of the back rooms. In between testing stations were small cubicles, out of the way. Inside was a toilet and a desk with a drink sitting on it, perfectly formulated to deliver proper hydration and nutrients for a day. There was no decoration, no chair, just stark grey necessity. Scout sat on the desk and swung his feet, sucking through the red stripped straw. The thick liquid tasted like vanilla, strange really. He wouldn't think those aperture jerks would care about the taste. Oh well.

The straw made dry sucking noises as he slurped down the last of his shake. It wasn't Bonk, but if he squinted hard he could almost fool himself.


End file.
